Photo by Roger Gavan On Friday, May 19, Town of Warwick Supervisor Michael Sweeton (far right), Mayor Michael Newhard (far left) and members of the Warwick Valley Chamber of Commerce joined founder and CEO Peter Ladka (center), his family and his entire team along with numerous well-wishers to celebrate the firm’s new 13,000 square-foot space in the former Georgia Pacific building.

Many local residents may not know that the Warwick firm, GeekHive, is a leading domestic custom web development and technical implementation agency known for partnering with top digital agencies to solve unique business challenges and deliver on mission-critical digital initiatives.

The company has had an envious and record growth.

In 2016, for example, Inc. magazine included GeekHive on its 35th annual Inc. 500|5000 list, an exclusive ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies.

And on Friday, May 19, Town of Warwick Supervisor Michael Sweeton, Mayor Michael Newhard and members of the Warwick Valley Chamber of Commerce joined founder and CEO Peter Ladka, his family and his entire team along with numerous well-wishers to celebrate the firm’s new 13,000 square-foot space in the former Georgia Pacific building.

Room to growMichael Johndrow, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, described this ribbon-cutting as the largest to date.

The move to the new and completely renovated location at 28 Church Street 2A, with a spectacular interior design not only accommodates the firm’s current team members, but offers room to grow in the coming years.

“We’re thrilled to celebrate this momentous occasion,” said Ladka. “It’s been a long time coming and we’re really proud to share this moment with our community. We’ve already come so far, I can’t wait to see where we go from here.”

Founded in 1997, GeekHive has built a thriving tech business in the Hudson Valley through partnering with digital agencies in New York City and around the country, helping them bring their creative ideas to life through technical expertise.

‘Treat people like they matter’Ladka explained that GeekHive’s backbone has always been amazing employees.

It’s guiding value, he stated, is a “People First” principle, which states that the people on the team are people first, employees second.

This mindset has led to an extremely low turnover rate with many tenured staff working at GeekHive for more than eight years, including CTO Jay Oliver, GeekHive’s first employee hired in 2001, and Technical Director Kevin Varley.

“Treat people like they matter, because they do,” said Ladka.

He also believes in supporting the community and not only started GeekHive, but also a local non-profit, Beautiful People, which is the Orange County Chapter of Miracle League. The organization is now in its 10th year of building bridges between children with special needs, their families, and the broader community of Orange County through their adaptive sports programs.